Working Paper: NBER ID: w17156
Authors: Kerwin Kofi Charles; Jonathan Guryan
Abstract: We discuss research on discrimination against blacks and other racial minorities in labor market outcomes, highlighting fundamental challenges faced by empirical work in this area. Specifically, for work devoted to measuring whether and how much discrimination exists, we discuss how the absence of relevant data, the potential noncomparability of blacks and whites, and various conceptual concerns peculiar to race may frustrate or render impossible the application of empirical methods used in other areas of study. For work seeking to arbitrate empirically between the two main alternative theoretical explanations for such discrimination as it exists, we distinguish between indirect analyses, which do not directly study the variation in prejudice or the variation in information, the mechanisms at the heart of the two types of models we review, and direct analyses, which are more recent and much less common. We highlight problems with both approaches. Throughout, we discuss recent work, which, the various challenges notwithstanding, permits tentative conclusions about discrimination. We conclude by pointing to areas that might be fruitful avenues for future investigation.
Keywords: discrimination; labor market; racial minorities
JEL Codes: J01; J7; J71
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| wage gap between black and white workers (J79) | discrimination is a factor influencing labor market outcomes (J70) |
| observational data leads to biased estimates of discrimination (J70) | complicates causal interpretations (C30) |
| prejudice-based and statistical discrimination models (J71) | similar predictions regarding labor market outcomes (J79) |
| existing empirical studies fail to convincingly test between prejudice-based and statistical discrimination models (J70) | observed outcomes could be explained by either type of discrimination (J79) |